


Sleeping In

by Shellbacker



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Christmas Morning, Established Relationship, F/M, Lazy Mornings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-22 02:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13157643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shellbacker/pseuds/Shellbacker
Summary: Cullen did something to distract Nat for the morning and let them sleep in. Piper doesn't know what he did, but she's not complaining.





	Sleeping In

**Author's Note:**

> i said i was gonna write a thing for xmas. this isn't The Thing i said i'd write but it's A Thing so that's close enough! 
> 
> merr chrismus!
> 
> also, Cullen and Piper do a little gross/cute thing some couples do. some of you might find this weird, and you're right. it is.

The faint jingle of sleigh bells rocked Piper back to consciousness. Green light stabbed her eyes as she strained to open them. She groaned, turning over in the sheets and pulling them further over her shoulders. The man facing her was still fast asleep. Cullen always slept like a rock when wind or rain assaulted the shelter where they slept. Weather was easy to hear from inside the Publick. Conditions had settled since the night. It was dead quiet. Nothing but that damned Pipboy sounded early that Christmas morning.

It was 7:30AM, Piper knew. She didn't have to look at the clock because the same thing happened last year. She sighed and slithered a palm under the covers. Her fingers locked under Cullen's chin. Despite the light shining up the wall behind her, it was still dark and she didn't know if he was faking it or not. He's done that before to avoid dealing with inconveniences like this.

“Blue,” she grumbled, shaking his face up and down. She was easy at first until her movement became relentless and his breath caught. “Blue!”

“What?” he muttered. “What is it?”

“It's Christmas,” she said, resting her hand on the side of his face. She could tell his eyes were still closed.

“Fuck.” He could hear it. Someone was going to have to reach for the snooze button.

“I thought you fixed the alarm last year.”

Cullen rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes. Piper was quick to take advantage of this and tuck her head into a shoulder and throw a leg over one of his. He tensed at the touch of her feet, ice cold as always. An ankle hooked around his calf prevented him from pulling away. Sometimes he swore she did it all on purpose.

Fuzzy socks – he should have found a pair of fuzzy socks for her.

“Holiday alarms are part of the operating system, which is... real odd for Vault-Tec. Can't do anything about it.”

Piper sighed again and ran a hand over his chest. “It's too early for Vault-Tec.”

All of a sudden, the floor boards creaked downstairs, right beneath them. It was Nat. Metal clinked and warm lantern light crept through the cracks up to Piper's room. The pair heard her declare what day it was, her voice resounding before it fell off.

The reporter took a breath and broke away from her partner to sit up. The winter morning chill was already starting to nip at her body. She was about to descend into her slippers when Cullen caught her wrist. She peered back at him, not expecting to see that he was wide awake now, limbs tense as he held himself up to stop her. Out of the darkness, she could see that his cheeks were widening.

“Hold on a sec,” he whispered excitedly.

There was more shuffling downstairs, then it stopped. Then it picked up shortly after. It sounded like Nat was heading for the front of the house, clamouring to fasten her boots. Then, the front door opened and closed.

Piper narrowed her eyes at Cullen, who began to relax but retained his hold on her wrist. His hand fell to hers, their fingers tangling. “Blue, what did you do?” she asked.

“C'mon,” he beckoned. “Stay warm with me.” Piper didn't budge.

“We get morning noodles and brahmin bacon for Christmas every year and then open presents,” Piper explained, knowing he had to have done something big to make Nat forget about it. “ _What did you do?”_

“Relax, will ya? She'll be gone all morning at least – and she'll be safe,” he said. Piper's anxious gaze went to and from the stairwell and back to him. “Nick and Ellie's in on it... Hancock, Mac, Cait and Deacon too.”

“Oh God.”

Cullen laughed that hearty laugh that somehow always put Piper at ease. He couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or genuinely worried.

“C'mere,” he tried again, a little softer. Piper rubbed her eyes and yawned, but she complied. The Pipboy's holiday alarm died to a bat of her palm and she rolled back under Cullen's arm and pulled the sheets up to her neck. She wiggled backward on her side until her skin met his. With his warmth radiating under the sheets, the wind picked up outside. So did her mind as it ran away with whatever wild adventure Cullen sent her sister on.

He kissed the back of her neck and wrapped an arm over her stomach, softly squeezing a breath out of her. She chuckled as he blew away a lock of her warm black hair that had no doubt tickled his lip during the former gesture. Cullen's eyes closed once, twice, and he was out again. His love didn't take long to follow suit.

* * *

The next time Piper woke, it was to an empty bed, sheets misshapen and barely covering her. An instinctual panic threatened to shatter her fatigue. Then the smell of coffee wafted into her nose. It smelled different, though – not as strong as either she or Cullen usually makes it. The man in question reappeared at the head of the stairs momentarily, footsteps mysteriously silent like they always were. He held a mug in each hand with something poking out of the rims.

“Didn't think you'd be up,” he said, placing the mystery beverage on the dresser next to their bed.

Upon closer inspection, the things in the mugs were candy canes. Cullen noticed her focusing on the mugs, half seated, front exposed to the room's colder air. He was wearing her robe and, Piper suspected, nothing else underneath. As he sat down on the bed in front of her, she didn't understand why he didn't just buy one for himself. A merc like him certainly had the caps to spare.

“Peppermint mocha,” he pointed. “Shit was all the rave around the time of year people focused more on consumerism and less on everything else, like pumpkin spice in the fall,” he shook his head. “Never liked the stuff.”

 _The heck's a pumpkin?_ she thought.

Without a word, Piper reached by him with two hands and grasped a mug. The ceramic was hot to the touch and she raised it to her lips, steam cascading over the rim in its wake. The scent of peppermint was overpowering, but the flavour spike was followed by the bitter sweetness of coffee and stale cacao. It was perfect.

Piper moaned as she took a longer sip, her back curling into the action as the drink's heat washed through her body. She slurped at the end of her sip and caught the tail end of Cullen's eyes rolling. He smiled when she put the mug down.

“That's _good_ ,” she said, nodding. “You should make that like, once or twice a week.”  
“Uh huh,” he agreed, quirking a brow and at what he saw. Piper caught on that he was staring at her mouth.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. You just, uh...” Cullen inched closer. “You got a little mocha...”

“Blue. Don't.”

“Hold still.”

“Cullen, I swear!” she warned him before he cupped her cheeks and pulled her mouth to his. The kiss devolved as he brushed his tongue over her upper lip. He felt her face scrunch under his hands in disgust. It made him chuckle as he let go.

“Not bad for 200 year-old ingredients,” he licked his lips and took the second mug.

Piper shook her head, the disgust finally waning from her face. “You would know, wouldn't you?”

“Is that supposed to be a jab at my age?” he smirked as he took his first sip and held Piper's gaze.

 _“Never,”_ she said, breaking eye contact and smiling. “Insulting a frozen TV dinner would be _such_ an unbecoming thing of an esteemed journalist like myself. They can't even fight back.”

Cullen's brow arched as he blew over his mocha, his eye drifting to the dresser. “Looks like I'll be getting a second mug this morning.”

Piper snagged her mug again and held it closer to her chest than before. The drinks didn't last five minutes between them. As for the candy canes, Piper ate them, always having a bigger sweet tooth than her partner. Cullen then tossed the robe on her desk and rejoined her in bed. They threw the sheets back over themselves and in moments, there was warmth aplenty between them.

“So, you get me a box of random scrap like last year?” Cullen inquired, pecking the arm Piper had under his head. She grinned guiltily.

“Actually,” said Piper, “this time it's a bunch of scrap from the Boston Bugle. There's some parts that look like they belong to an ink injector. Press could use a replacement soon. Got some stuff from the resident robots too. They didn't exactly appreciate my presence but I figured I'd save you the time from scavenging and slowing us down next time we're on a case.”

“How self-serving,” Cullen remarked with a chuckle. “I make intelligent use of free resources, you know. That's how we're still alive to bitch about it.”

“Well merry fricken Christmas to you too, Blue,” she teased, leaning in and stealing a long kiss. Her other hand found its way to the back of his neck. Their lips parted briefly for her to ask what he got her. “More fountain pens?”

“Nope,” he smirked, looking up into her eyes, her hair veiling his face from anything else in sight. “Just honest-to-God, hermetically sealed tabloid paper stock from the Chicago Tribune. Perfectly preserved, high quality goods, like your favourite pre-war relic.”

“You should do radio ads. Vadim's always saying you've got a face for radio,” she said and kissed him again. “Thank you. A lot.”

“Merry Christmas,” he breathed, carding his fingers through her hair. “And Vadim's a prick.”

Catching him glance at her lips, she ran a finger over his. “Oh, big time. Now why don't we forget about him... and everything else for little bit, huh?”

Piper felt an arm slide under her hip, then another on top. The sheets fell away from the edge of the bed as Cullen pulled her on top of him. His hands made their way up her front and to her cheeks while her legs straddled him. During the whole movement, their lips were a breath apart.

“Have I ever told you that you have the best ideas?” he voiced.

“Only always,” she said.

* * *

Their eyes opened simultaneously to the sound of the front door swinging open and colliding with the stopper. Piper's legs were tucked up into Cullen's stomach as he held her. She only did it when exceptionally comfortable in her sleep.

Luckily, they were covered. Nat trudged up the stairs with an unidentified heap of objects in her arms. She stopped at the top step, saw the lack of the pair's movement as a sign they were still asleep, and returned down the stairs.

It was quarter passed two in the afternoon when they got up. Nat had the objects scattered about the living room. It was Nuka-Cola memorabilia, water blaster, Quantum bottles, useful gear and fun reading material from everyone.

The pair were thankful Hancock left out the Jet this year.

 


End file.
